The only way for vegetarians to truly deal with the pain of not eating meat is through self-flagellation and self-mutilation. Hey vegetarians, if I could do it for you, I'd punish you too. What's the point of suffering through global warming if you're not going to eat a hamburger or three? I mean, if we're all going to slowly drown like the polar bears, we might as well enjoy all the Double Whoppers with bacon and cheese while we can.
I guess they're not really thinking about hamburgers though during the vegetarian festival (although I definitely was. the novelty of vegetarian food wore off after day 1). For ten days during the ninth lunar month (sometime during the end of September and the beginning of October), Chinese Thais abstain from eating meat.
Oh but there's so much more to it than that.
During this ten day period there are different ceremonies and rites performed by the Chinese monks. Individuals can choose whether they want to abstain from eating meat for 1 day, 3 days, 7 days or 9 days. (I jokingly asked if I could go without for 1 hour. No one thought that was funny. Hm.) In the stricter code of laws, one following the vegetarian diet is also forbidden from having sex, murdering (but hey, other times that's okay), wearing leather and metal jewelry, and eating with anybody not doing the vegetarian thing.
One type of ceremony is the street procession. During a street procession a Chinese monk will mutilate himself (usually a "him" I saw very few females participating in self-mutilation) using any sharp items he can find. Traditionally, it's sharp metallic picks found in Chinese temples, knives, daggers. All shoved through the cheeks or brow.
I think perhaps in recent days, Chinese monks, whose bodies are taken over by spirits and can supposedly feel no pain while they walk around in a trance and speak as if possessed, have become more creative. I went to watch the street procession in Phuket town with fellow volunteers Chris, John and Sheila and of the more.. whimsical items we saw lodged in people's faces, there was a:
After this, we hung out on the beach and then headed back in to Phuket town to watch monks walk on fire (or red hot coals anyway). We had catch the last bus to my site so alas, even though we waited for an hour, no firewalking. But fun bus pictures anyway!
In Khok Kloi (my town, if you'll remember. 80% Chinese heritage) one night, monks beat themselves with branches dipped in boiling hot water and whipped themselves with axes. Yes, there was blood. They did a very controlled upward swing with (what looked to me like) very sharp axes, lightly lacerating themselves on their backs. One man was very concentrated on sawing on his tongue (or his lower lip, depending on who you ask) with his axe.
In another ceremony, again in Khok Kloi, monks went around the neighborhoods and blessed houses and families. Families laid out altars with tea and fruit offerings for the monks. Oddly enough, the monks would take the fruit and present it back to the family. This is thought to bring good fortune. And if merely visiting doesn't bring you enough fortune, one monk (speaking in tongues in an odd high pitched voice), gestured winning lottery numbers to my host father. Classic.Here was the only time I saw women with pins through their faces.
So why all this, anyway? About 150 years ago, Chinese immigrants fell to an epidemic and they sought a cure by not eating meat and praying to the nine Chinese gods by way of festival. And they've continued this celebration every year since then.
